Previously, on the Aslan Route: Investigating the monastery on Sink, the PCs discover it has a gold mine and jewellery shop supporting a hospice. Their former free trader contact has probably been impressed into the Drinaxian Star Guard, so the Macavity offers to take over that run. At night, Vila breaks into the monastery and copies all their digital data. Something strange is going on here, and the PCs are set on finding out what. Now read on…

Sink, 136-1105 to 140-1105

Analysis of the stolen data reconfirms that the monastery is what it claims to be, with only a few points of interest. Why did they buy a jacuzzi? What is the enigmatic House of Shrouded Mirrors on Pourne? Why do meeting minutes sometimes record the meeting was adjourned so the abbot could ‘ease a patient’s passing’? And finally, who is eating all that curried goat?

The purloined records indicate this cult is an offshoot of Buddhism, but the monks believe being buried in the swamp allows one to pass directly to nirvana without all that tedious death and rebirth.

Discarding the idea of deliberately hastening the demise of a hospice patient so they can observe a swamp burial, the crew set up remote surveillance cameras to watch the swamp and the monastery, then return to the abbott, explain that they’re off to Byrni and points coreward, and would he like to send some missionaries with them? He agrees, and thus it is that Sister Raquel embarks.

Jumpspace, 141-1105 to 147-1105

Most of this jump is spent getting to know Sister Raquel, who it turns out is a hacker from Pourne who joined the cult as a way of getting offworld when the police got a little too interested in her ‘difficult data retrieval service’. Dr Matauranga makes sure her inoculations are up to date and takes DNA samples. She easily finds the bugs in her cabin and sets them to pipe cat videos into the system. Vila arranges to pay her for hacking lessons. She accepts the cult’s views, but seems too hard-headed and rational to go along with the ‘magic fairy in the swamp’ side of things, leading the crew to believe that whatever is in the swamp, there’s a rational explanation.

Byrni, 148-1105 to 154-1105

Everyone except Mazun decides to wear their ayloi, following the trend set by Vila, who decides that being easily identifiable as an honourable aslan female (he’s an engineer) under the protection of the Iuwoi clan is worth the risk of being expected to defend his honour in a duel if challenged. While Mazun is bogged down in paperwork, the others go with Sister Raquel to meet the cult’s agent on Byrni, Brother Christian. They explain to him that they are replacing the Russell’s Teapot and why; Brother Christian presses them for details, and seems concerned, muttering that ‘the Fury is on the move again’. He asks for passage back to Sink, and the crew agree to take him so that they get a chance to interrogate him en route.

Mazun further establishes his cover as a reputable merchant captain by briefing the local government and the GeDeCo pirate hunters about what’s going on at Torpol.

Fast Travel, 155-1105 to 210-1105

The Macavity now travels from Byrni to Ergo, Tech-World, and Paal, before returning to Sink.

Ergo has the population of a small city spread over an entire planet, and despite the radioactive wastes, cannibals and pirate bases, the Macavity – which limits itself to orbital and low-altitude surveys – manages to identify some sites where a small group of enterprising ihatei could carve themselves a home out of the wilderness, although they might have to fight a few cannibal pirates for it.

At Tech-World, Sister Raquel disembarks, unsure whether to spread the word or shed her nun’s habit and return to a life of dubious morality. The crew goes shopping for armour, state of the art drones, including some hunting targets for the Prince, and psionic shield helmets, as Vila is convinced that he narrowly escaped psionic cultists on Blue and tells an embellished version of the story in the solitary starport bar. Mazun sends off a report to his handler on Cordan and says the best place to contact the team for the foreseeable future is Sink.

With almost two months for the crew to wheedle secrets out of Brother Christian, they dig out of him that the swamp is not, as they suspect, a hive mind, but something closer to a data storage unit, hungry for information-dense input; the monks recruit terminally ill patients, explaining to them that they can live forever (sort of) in the nirvana of the swamp. The swamp records their personalities, which it considers valuable items, and they live on, after a fashion; their memories and personalities are not entirely part of a hive mind, but nor are they entirely individuals. Sometimes, the swamp decides it needs more direct contact with the monastery, and it repairs and regurgitates one of the hospice patients; this is how abbots are made, or as Brother Christian puts it, they are blessed by the swamp.

However, certain of the swamp’s data is highly confidential, and is maintained in a secure satellite facility on Pourne: The House of Shrouded Mirrors. This, the excitable Brother Christian informs them, is where the information on the Fury is held. His knowledge and instructions are limited to this: If worlds start developing human-purist fascist tendencies and an inexplicable liking for black and silver uniforms, Something Bad is about to happen, and he is to alert the abbot as soon as he can. The abbot will know what to do.

GM Notes

Naturally, as soon as I abandoned the Space Plague storyline as the players didn’t want to pursue it, they became interested in it and started to pursue it. That’s okay; I build the campaigns around their decisions, starting with the PC builds and then using their decisions and questions to drive it, and they know that.

What’s going on here is one part Pattern Jugglers from Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series, one part Schlock Mercenary, one part mind flayer elder brain pool, and three parts unused adventures from Heart of the Fury for the Bulldogs! RPG, which I tried running a few years ago – one of the players has already been through the first five adventures, so I can’t use those again, but then the campaign folded. That happens quite a lot lately.

As is my usual habit, when a player started getting close to the real explanation, I gave out a Benny; players in SF games often spend hours whacking the bushes in their search for clues, and I find it useful to reward them with Bennies when they’re onto something, so that they don’t wander off after random shiny bits of irrelevant fluff.

The NPC names come from an online random generator, and their personalities come from Mythic GM Emulator 2E.

Our schedules dictate no more Aslan Route sessions for the next 2-3 weeks, so no more “Traveller Tuesdays” for a while.

Previously, on the Aslan Route… The Crew of the Macavity fail to successfully conclude marriage negotiations between Prince Hteleitoirl’s clan, the Iuwoi, and that of Elehasei, the Aftei. They leave to carry the Prince into his one year exile on Sink. Now read on…

Jumpspace, 127-1105 to 133-1105

The crew get to know Elehasei’s chaperone, Akoi, and the handful of staff sent to help the Prince settle in on Sink.

Sink, 134-1105

Arriving on Sink on 134-1105, the Macavity lands and is greeted by the aslan Port Authority, a female called Ahoakhi who is part of the Prince’s clan, the Iuwoi. They met her on their last visit and know that she is amicable and fond of gossip. She reports that Koal was retrieved without incident and one of the males sent to get him – Ftoilakh – stayed at the factor’s house to maintain clan ownership.

Ahoaki is puzzled by goings-on at the monastery, although it would be improper for her to pry. Every so often a free trader called Russell’s Teapot delivers low passengers who are collected by the monks. The monks also collect assorted supplies in exchange for a small number of heavy crates. What puzzles Ahoaki is that as more people join the monks, she would expect the amount of supplies to increase (it doesn’t) and extra housing to be built (it isn’t). Since the monks always wear their silver masks and brown robes, it’s hard to tell if they are always the same ones or not.

Ahoaki says that when the low passengers disembark, they seem unhealthy, and the free trader captain (one Maryia Liimaangi) doesn’t treat them or her crew well, but the monks who come to collect them seem solicitous enough. Ahoaki is an alert and observant type, and provides detailed information on how often the Teapot arrives, what it’s carrying, and so on. She also advises that it’s easy to gain access to the monastery trading post, but trying to go beyond that results in encounters with stout but polite monks who explain the rest of the monastery is not open to the public.

Sink, 135-1105

While the aslan move into the clan estate, the Macavity relocates close to the monastery which constitutes almost all the population of Sink. As Mazun points out, with a law level of zero they can’t be breaking any laws, as there are none.

A quick flyover on approach reveals the following points:

• The monastery is a collection of buildings on a plug of volcanic rock, surrounded by a swamp, in the caldera of an extinct volcano several kilometres across. There is a cluster of four blocks surrounding a central cloister; clockwise from the access causeway to the north these are a trading post (north), a habitation block (northeast), a block of uncertain purpose (south), and a warehouse and workshop (northwest).
• The central cloister has an offworld fusion generator of the kind often sold to low-tech planets as a power plant.
• The southernmost building is two stories high, and has balconies to the north and south as well as several dozen windows. Its purpose is unclear.

Mazun and Vila approach openly and enquire about trade. The trading post manager explains that they have an arrangement already with the Russell’s Teapot, although it is somewhat overdue, and the crew explain the situation on Torpol and that the Teapot has probably been pressed into service with the Drinaxian Star Guard. They go on to discuss the Macavity as a potential replacement, and the manager lists the supplies they need – food, spares, medicines and so forth – and what they have to trade for them; quartz and gold mined from the edge of the caldera, and gold jewellery handmade by the monks. He doesn’t have authority to agree a deal, but he can arrange a meeting with the abbot the next day. Vila and Mazun ask about the low passengers, and are told that the monastery also serves as a hospice for the terminally ill.

Late that night, Mazun provides Vila with some parts which are suspiciously easy to assemble into a grav belt, and Rex is strapped into it and sent on a low-level reconnaissance where he encounters high concentrations of marsh gas and is forced to turn back for medical attention.

Sink, 136-1105

Rex remembers that the monks on Sink are said to sink valuable items in the swamp. Further conversation with Ahoaki reveals that they do occasionally venture out onto the swamp in flatboats, and dump boxes over the side. It’s logical that these are coffins containing the bodies of dead hospice patients – after all, the monks have to put them somewhere – and Dr Matauranga suggests that they may be a hidden genetic engineering facility, a gang of organleggers, or both.

At tech level 5, the monks’ sensors are limited to the Mk I Eyeball so it’s a simple task to take the air/raft out over the swamp undetected. There’s a ground-penetrating radar in the ship’s locker, and parts that a suitably skilled person could assemble into a sonar; judging by the swearing and occasional explosions from Engineering, Vila is not that person. However, it’s a fine day for an outing, and those aboard the air/raft notice that the vegetation swirls into patterns which seem to follow the air/raft when it’s flying low and slow enough. Perhaps the swamp life has learned that big boxy things mean food? Rex swears that at one point he saw the shape of a human face in the muck, but everyone knows methane poisoning affects one’s vision.

There is no sign of whatever the monks are sinking in the swamp. Eaten by wildlife?

Later, Vila, Mazun and Dr Matauranga return to the monastery, the latter to offer his services to the hospice as a cover for checking out what’s going on there. It turns out that the apparent hospice is really a hospice, and that no-one is going to die in the next few days, so there is no imminent opportunity to see what happens at a swamp burial. The good doctor buys some jewellery at the trading post with the intention of taking DNA samples from both that and the hospice toilets.

Mazun and Vila negotiate a supply agreement with the abbot, and despite their best attempts at finding out his Dark Secret, he doesn’t seem to have one. Although he does have a curious speech impediment, as if his mouth were not the right shape for speaking human language. Hearing the recordings, Rex wonders if he has mouth tentacles? It’s hard to tell anything about the monks, as they are permanently masked (against the methane, perhaps?), robed, and gloved, and greet each other by bowing.

However, when they repreat the story about Torpol being taken over by Drinax, the abbot is intensely interested, asks a lot of probing questions, and generally gets more out of them than they would usually admit. Almost as if he were a trained interrogator. The team retires, puzzled.

That night, Vila dons the grav belt and a rebreather mask and breaks into the southern building, easily bypassing its insultingly ineffective security (a paint tin full of nails rigged to a tripwire). He wanders around until he finds the library/office, where there is a tech level 10 laptop, a printer, a large filing cabinet and a collection of medical and history texts. He clones the laptop onto a thumb drive and takes pictures of some sample hardcopy records and the spines of the books.

Hearing music starting to play from the rooms behind the southern balcony, he decides that’s enough for one evening and exits the facility vertically. Once back at the ship, the crew can join forces to analyse what he has found.

As he goes, he catches a glimpse of a pensive figure on the balcony, leaning on the railing and looking out over the swamp.

To be continued…

GM Notes

I worked this one out before I got Perilous Void, then didn’t use it for a few weeks because of scheduling issues. I started by wondering what the monks could be using for offworld exchange. Not likely to be bog iron, but I discovered that some swamps form in old volcanic calderas, and some calderas also have reasonable gold deposits in the surrounding fissures and quartz veins, so we’re off to the races.

The players asked lots of intriguing questions as always; I welcome these, as the questions and the Mythic GM Emulator‘s responses do half the work for me.

The monastery site was created in four steps:

• Draw a Scheme Pyramid as a guide to what the PCs had to do, and replace the bottom tier with traps from Veiled Fury’s Modern Traps. That told me they had to get past poisonous gas and a moat (merged into the swamp itself and the marsh gas it generates), some guards (stout monks) and an executive (the trading post manager) before doing stuff that involved a lot of Notice, Stealth and Thievery rolls, before finally encountering the abbot. However, Vila balked at that last fence.
• Use that as a guide to the overall shape of the facility (something I do quite a lot), with each card being an area of indeterminate size. Essentially, each building was one of the cards.
• Based on what I already know, make a list of what should be in each area.
• That gave me an elliptical island in the middle of a swamp, with five main areas: A warehouse/refinery, a block of monks’ cells with a refectory, a shop/guard post, and the abbott’s quarters and Dark Secrets, all grouped around a central cloister with a power plant in it. Job done, over to the players.

I’ll explain what’s actually going on once the PCs figure it out.

Previously, on the Aslan Route: The crew of the Macavity deliver Prince Hteleitoirl to his family estate on Tyokh in the nick of time, and convince the independent arbiter that he was betrayed by rivals in the Htyowao clan. He is declared innocent, and Rex fights the clan champion to first blood so that the people who came to see a duel are not disappointed. The Prince’s father, the Iuwoi clanlord, gives them prosthetic duelling claws they can wear to demonstrate their honour, and asks to meet them privately to discuss future employment. Now read on…

Tyokh, 113-1105 to 126-1105

The Iuwoiko offers the crew a range of possible jobs, which Dr Matauranga notes are a test; do they prefer honour and a closer association with the clan, or money? Of the tasks on offer, they choose the one with the least pay and the closest links to the clan, despite Vila’s arguments in favour of taking the money; escorting the Prince to meet Elehasei’s father and ask him for her hand in marriage.

Elehasei asks for the crew’s help in making a pitch to her father; the Prince has no lands at the moment, but she sees great potential in him, so if between them they can come up with a credible plan, they may be able to get engaged right away. After extensive discussions, they decide to suggest offering military service to the government of Byrni in exchange for land there, and if that fails, they will simply seize some land on Ergo, which has neither the population nor the technology to resist. That agreed, they pile into a couple of air/rafts and set off to the estates of Ellie’s clan. What can go wrong?

Well, firstly, a group of bounty hunters looking for Vila bring down the air/rafts with an EMP device. When asked to hand Vila over, the captain delegates negotiations to Rex, who is spoiling for a fight and explains in graphic detail what will happen to the bounty hunters if they push their luck and intervene in inter-clan marriage negotations. He is so convincing that they fall back in good order, calling over their shoulders that Vila is worth a lot of money and he hasn’t heard the last of them.

“What was that about?” Mazun wants to know.

“Mistaken identity, surely,” says Vila, but the others are not convinced.

Vila cobbles the air/rafts back together and they set off again, only to be interrupted by a group from the Htyowao clan who challenge the Prince, Rex and Mazun to a duel for publicly impugning the honour of their clan. Vila negotiates with their attached female that the duel should be to first blood, they send a message ahead to explain the reason for their lateness, and set to it. Mazun loses in an honourable manner. The Prince gets carried away and accidentally severs one of his opponent’s arteries, but between them Vila and the Htyowao female manage to save his life. Unfortunately, Rex goes even further, his frenzied slashing nearly dismembering his challenger; despite Dr Matauranga’s best efforts, the party are unable to save him, and he bleeds out on the ground. Before the Htyowao can decide what to do about this, an escort from Ellie’s clan arrives to guide her, the Prince, and the crew of the Macavity to her father’s clanhold.

Ellie begins negotiations by explaining that high status males with a lot of land are in short supply, and there is intensive competition for them, so her plan is to choose a male with potential and help him become a high-status landholder, thereby securing her future by his own efforts and her support. This will mean she has a male of proven ability, rather than one who simply inherited his land.

Her father counters that Hteleitoirl failed in an attack on a weakly-held landhold, was accused of dishonourable conduct, and has since been challenged to three duels. He is still clanless and landless, and not a fit mate for his daughter.

Mazun, supported by Vila and Dr Matauranga, replies that the failure at Arunisiir and the accusations were due to betrayal, and not the Prince’s fault. He has demonstrated his skill and honour by winning every duel he has fought, and he has a solid plan for obtaining land.

Ellie’s father argues that he has only succeeded as far as he has thanks to the intervention of a non-aslan entourage. Mazun says this simply proves he can choose good subordinates and inspire loyalty in them, even across species boundaries. Ellie’s father remains unconvinced, stating: “He is not yet a fit mate for my daughter. Return when Prince Hteleitoirl has lands of his own, and I may be persuaded to reconsider.”

The crew and the star-crossed lovers return to the Prince’s clanhold. His father has sent trusted retainers to recover Koal from Sink; the next step is to take the Prince into exile there, after which Ellie suggests the crew should do some reconnaissance in preparation for acquiring land.

To be continued…

GM Notes

This session went better, I think. The players got to strategise, Rex got a fight, Dr Matauranga got some medical practice, and Mazun got to negotiate. Vila didn’t get any sneaky thievery, but his time will come, probably next session.

Originally, I intended to string together a group of published one-shots from this point onwards, but that’s expensive both in money and – more importantly – in my time, so I rolled a few dice on the campaign turn tables in Five Parsecs from Home, which gave me the idea for the main mission. Once I had enough of an idea to run with, I set that book aside and started thinking, based on both the situation and odd comments from the players, about what the clanlord might want and why he wanted the PCs to do it. It’s a small clan, so probably he doesn’t have enough trustworthy agents to do everything at once. He needs to sort out the betrothal, recall the traitor from Sink to explain himself, replace the traitor so the landhold doesn’t get claim-jumped; probably other things too, but three is enough for the PCs to choose from. In addition, the PCs embarrassed the Htyowao clan, which will want to teach them a lesson, and Vila’s enemy found out where he is – I roll a die for that each time the group change planets. I thought that was enough for one session.

The Prince’s would-be betrothed, Elehasei, needed help with the pitch to her father. In narrative terms, the PCs did very well on the last job; in mechanical terms, they have bennies and wild dice, and she doesn’t.

Once I had the general idea, I used The Scheme Pyramid to flesh out the scenes and encounters. I find it really useful for that; I tend to play them out in more detail, but if I need to zoom out to a low-res session because of time, I can just revert to the basics. One of the most useful SWADE ‘aftermarket’ products I’ve bought.

Previously, on the Aslan Route: The Macavity arrives at The World, where Prince Hteleitoirl’s old friends are on a security contract. His fiancee Elehasei secretly explains to the crew that they are taking the Prince home to be executed, and asks them to take him somewhere else instead. While everyone else is at a feast held in the Prince’s honour, Vila is working on the ship. A shadow falls across him and a slurred voice accuses him of snubbing the Prince by staying away from the feast. Now read on…

The World, 104-1105

Vila explains to the aslan talking to him that he means no offence, but the Prince needs to leave immediately, and it is his duty as engineer to ensure the ship is in the best condition possible, much as he might have liked to go to the feast. The aslan sees his logic and stalks off, muttering insults in a low enough tone that Vila can pretend not to have heard them.

Jumpspace, 105-1105 to 111-1105

The crew invite Ellie (and a chaperone, of course) to accompany them to Tyokh, so that they have the maximum time available to strategise. Ellie convinces the Prince to formally acknowledge the crew of the Macavity as his entourage, which will give them a chance to introduce themselves before the duel – this is their only chance to clear the Prince’s name.

They agree on an approach; Mazun will make the case that the Prince was set up, supported by Dr Matauranga’s research into relevant aslan sagas and precedents, and Vila’s well-known skill at decoding nuances in aslan body language and speech, allowing him to notice when things are going well, or not, and alert Mazun accordingly. Rex is famously impulsive and offensive so is made to promise he will sit quietly at the back and not interrupt.

If necessary, they agree they will have to confess to reading Koal’s private message, but since Koal doesn’t know how good Rex is with computers or how long he had to hack Koal’s laptop before throwing it at his pursuers, they will claim they got it from the laptop. They think this is less of an issue for them long-term than admitting to opening the mail in transit.

Tyokh, 112-1105

With only hours to spare, the Macavity steps out of jumpspace above Tyokh and the Prince leverages his family name to get clearance to land directly at the family estate. Mazun impresses the attending aslan with a stylish landing, and everyone dresses up to the nines and troops to the duelling circle behind the Prince and his honour guard. The Iuwoiko asks each in turn (in descending order of status as he perceives it) who they are and by what right they stand with his son in this matter.

Captain Ashran states boldly that he is here to prevent a miscarriage of justice, since the Prince has been framed and is forbidden by the code to speak in his own defence. (Shocked muttering among the crowd.) Rex, Dr Matauranga and Vila explain their roles on the Macavity, and that they serve their captain, and thus indirectly the Prince; Matauranga adds that he knows the members of the ruling Council of Tech-World personally (given the world’s population this is not difficult, and he carefully did not claim that they were friends). However Rex extends this by saying that if there must be a duel, he stands ready to fight – and if necessary die – in the Prince’s stead, to general acclaim and a cry from the back of “This one has the soul of a warrior!”.

Watching are an observer from the Htyowao clan and an independent fteirko, sent to adjudicate any points of honour and ensure fair play. The Htyowao observer demands to know what is meant by these insinuations.

Mazun lays out the suspicious timing of the PSS arrival on Arunisiir, the attempts on the Prince’s life on the way to Tyokh, and the implied treachery of Koal’s duel with the Prince and the secret message he sent to the Htyowao, whose observer passes most of this off as coincidence and argues that the crew cannot possibly know of Koal’s message, at least not in an honourable way.

Mazun admits that the message was stolen, although he stresses that at the point where they stole Koal’s laptop they were not the Prince’s entourage, he knew nothing about it, and certainly didn’t authorise or tell them to do it. In essence they risked a lesser breach of the code of honour to prevent a greater one. The Htyowao observer is pleased Mazun has admitted to dishonourable behaviour, points out that the Macavity‘s crew aren’t even aslan and therefore their words should carry no weight, and demands to know where this alleged message is?

Mazun produces the (apparently unopened) message with a flourish, and suggests the observer and the fteirko read it; no one else needs to see it, and if the message is innocent, letting the fteirko see it will prove the observer is right and Mazun and his crew are wrong. Unfortunately, as Macavity‘s crew are well aware, the message is deeply incriminating, and the fteirko decides that this behaviour by the Htyowao is sufficiently dishonourable that the Prince has no case to answer, and so a duel is unnecessary. He also comments acidly that he never thought to see the day when humans and vargr had a better grasp of honour than an aslan noble. Despite this, there are no penalties for the Htyowao, since as an ihatei at the time the Prince was technically not part of his clan – knocking off other clans’ ihatei is acceptable, but one is supposed to do it in an honourable way, with proper challenges and so forth.

However, beyond the clanlord’s ill-concealed delight at his son’s survival, the crowd has come to see a fight, and the fteirko suggests that perhaps Rex and the clan champion brought to duel the Prince might like to prove their honour by engaging in a non-lethal bout? Rex has been eagerly waiting for this moment, and agrees; the duel goes to six rounds, with the champion just managing to get first blood in a surprisingly even fight, and everyone is satisfied at the outcome.

The Iuwoiko tries to look stern as he tells his favourite son that despite everything, he has still let the clan down by losing the fight on Arunisiir, and he must go into exile for a year to atone. However, he will no doubt want to rest and prepare himself before leaving, and he is granted permission to do so. Noticing Ellie’s happiness at this, the PCs ask why she is pleased; she explains that the clanlord has not set a time limit on the rest and preparation, so should the Prince marry, raise children, grow old and die before he gets round to leaving, that will be perfectly honourable. Mazun philosophically points out that with travel times being what they are, a year is not so very long anyway.

Later, the Iuwoiko thanks the crew for clearing his son’s name, and presents each of them with a set of ayloi, prosthetic dewclaws which they should wear at their belts to publicly show their honour, and their willingness to fight for it. He encourages them to rest at the estate for a few days, as the clan may have a proposal for them…

To be continued…

GM Notes

Between session 6 and session 7 there was a flurry of email about what to do, resulting in a lot of detailed information and plotting. In the end, though, I zoomed out and ran it as a SWADE Social Conflict. Most of the session focused on the debates in jumpspace about how to pitch their case; the intricacies of the aslan code of honour, most of which I made up as we went along, were their friend here. This episode showcased Mazun’s silver tongue and Rex’s melee skills, so I should shift the spotlight elsewhere soon.

Thus ends Reach Adventure 5: The Borderlands Run. As usual, I left out about a third to a half of it because I didn’t think it would interest my players or because I forgot it in the heat of the moment. However, if you run it, it has some fridge logic you need to think about beforehand.

• Just what is this mysterious deal that the failed invasion of Arunisiir throws off?
• What’s PSS really up to? One of my players grabbed this dangling thread and simply would not let go. This forced me to think about it and come up with a reason, which they may or may not find out in due course.
• What do the PCs do for proof if they don’t find the incriminating papers?
• If a champion could stand in for the principal, why doesn’t one of his boon companions from The World do that?

Except for Rex’s player, the group have built their PCs to avoid fighting, and in play they do so at all costs. At the moment, I’m getting enough SWADE combat from Deadlands and solo play, and don’t have the energy to press the issue. However, it means that they chew through plot even faster than usual for SWADE, and therefore they have fewer advances than usual at any given point.

We’d agreed earlier that this marks the end of ‘season one’, and that we would review where to go next at this point. Everyone wants to continue the campaign; Vila’s player wants to see more sneaky thievery, and Rex’s player would like more fights. Of the campaign directions offered, the clear winner was a series of stand-alone picaresque adventures; as Matauranga’s player pointed out, the group has already done the Pirates of Drinax story from the inside, and nobody wants to follow up on PSS unless a patron commissions them to do so.

Previously, on the Aslan Route: Relaxing on Torpol is interrupted by the appearance of the Sindalian Empire Reborn, which annexes Torpol and the Grehai Movement by unknown means. Moving on to Sink, the crew of the Macavity sneak into the residence of the aslan factor while he and the Prince are out on a sightseeing tour. Vila, Mazun and Dr Matauranga are discovered by the household staff, but Rex remains hidden. Now read on…

Sink, 091-1105 to 094-1105

The household staff, all aslan females, are not buying the crew’s explanation and are a little insulted by the implication that they can’t keep their lord’s house safe. One squeezes a pendant around her neck, which they surmise is a panic button, and the others drop into a wary fighting stance, dewclaws extended.

In the master’s office, Rex has discovered a laptop, mounted so as to slide under the desk. Whether this is for concealment or merely part of a clean desk policy is unclear. He extracts it and puts it into a satchel.

While Mazun and Vila cite instances of attempts on the Prince’s life, Dr Matauranga notices the Prince, Koal and two bodyguards approaching. The Prince and Koal are clearly having a heated argument which stops as they enter through the patio doors and Koal demands to know what is going on. Mazun and Vila repeat their story, adding that they assumed someone had cleared it with the household staff. Koal orders them to leave, so Vila, Dr Matauranga, and Mazun, in that order, leave through the side door. Rex, summoned by his captain, emerges from the office and tries to slink off, but the household staff notice he is concealing something, and he resorts to Plan B: Throw the laptop at them as a distraction and run for it, escaping handily and – as Mazun puts it – demonstrating the difference between chaser and pouncer stock.

Meeting at the prearranged rally point, they head back to the ship, where Hteleitoirl joins them; he bears evidence of having fought a duel and tears a strip off them; when they said they would do something he need not concern himself with, he assumed they meant some sort of female technical thing, not attempted larceny. He muses that challenging his lord’s favourite son to a duel is out of character for Koal, fuelling the party’s suspicions.

“No, my dear. You are amazed. It is we who are surprised.” – Attrib. Noah Webster

Jumpspace, 095-1105 to 101-1105

Reasoning that if Koal is as guilty as he looks, he will send a message, Mazun holds the ship in port an extra couple of days to ensure it is he who takes the mail outsystem to The World and Tyokh. Sure enough, Koal sends a message which the crew intercept, fumble open, and read while in jumpspace. This is couched in terms of complex literary allusions about heroes disrespected by their clanlords and what actions they took. Under the guise of studying aslan literature, Dr Matauranga seeks the Prince’s interpretations of the relevant sagas; between this and gossip learned from the starport administrator, a picture emerges of Koal being sent to open up Sink for trade and colonisation, the project falling through, him being left there ignored for years, and a rival clan – the Htyowao – making him a better offer. Hteleitoirl is ignorant of the crew’s shenanigans so far.

Running the numbers on astrogation based on Dr Matauranga’s legwork on the prior whereabouts of Planetside Security Services reveals that it they would have had just enough time to reposition themselves in time to thwart the Prince, but they would have had almost no preparation time, so they must have been on standby, waiting for the tipoff.

The World, 102-1105 to 103-1105

Hteleitoirl is welcomed joyfully by his old friends, now serving as the security detachment at The World’s starport, with the primary goal of keeping offworlders away from the bulk of the inhabitants – only the elite rulers know that the universe extends beyond this decrepit space station.

The meeting with the Prince’s former girlfriend, Elehasei, is clearly troubled, but she brings him his ceremonial regalia (which he left here on the way out) and his friends organise the best feast they can with what is available and a couple of hours’ notice. Noticing that the Macavity is the only ship in port, the starport is completely isolated from the population at large, and the entire starport security force is composed of the Prince’s boon companions, the team feels safe enough to disembark – all except Vila, who cites maintenance as a reason he should stay with the ship rather than accept the risk of going to a party.

While the rest of the crew are being wined and dined by the Prince’s friends, his recent hints that he has come to say goodbye to his friends suddenly click into focus for Vila, who realises that Macavity is taking him home to be executed for his failure.

During the feast, Elehasai seeks a private conversation with Dr Matauranga and explains the nature of things. When the Prince returned triumphantly from his assault on Arunisiir, Elehasai and he were to have been married; his failure caused problems for the Iuwoi clan, and to rectify this his father is now constrained to execute him in a formal duel against a clan champion. He could flee into exile if he were not so pigheaded, but if she asks him to do that she would lose him as surely as if he died. However, if the crew were to persuade him – or kidnap him – he would live, and she and his friends would follow him into exile.

Gentle probing by Dr Matauranga reveals other options. The Prince could fight the duel and win, which would serve the letter of the code of honour but not the spirit. He could appoint a champion to fight for him, and the champion could win. Someone could offer honourably obtained proof of betrayal, exonerating the Prince.

“The Prince knows you must leave in a few hours,” she concludes. “Please tell me your decision before you go.”

Meanwhile, back at the docking bay, a shadow falls across Vila as he is adjusting one of the landing legs.

“Hey, you,” the shadow slurs in Trokh. “You disrespect my lord by snubbing his invitation to the feast. What have you to say for yourself? Come out and face me.”

To be continued…

GM Notes

More by luck than judgement, the players have arrived at The World with exactly the right level of time pressure, and have teased out what is really going on. The last couple of episodes have been, amongst other things, a study of my interpretation of the aslan code of honour; it will be interesting to see if they have internalised it enough to use it to their advantage.

I expect “season one” to conclude next session, after which we’ll decide what to do next and whether anything needs changing.

“Season two”, if we go ahead with it, probably has about 20-30 sessions of play in it, which will take us through to July-August. (My holidays are a bit more demure this year, so the summer break will only be a few weeks.) That will take the PCs up to the start of Legendary Rank. “Season three” is still at the concept stage, but again we’ll decide what to do next at the end of season two.

Previously, on the Aslan Route: While looking for cargo on Clarke, the Travellers encounter bounty hunters looking for their passenger, Prince Hteleitoirl, who offer to split the bounty with them if they turn him in. Returning to the ship, they find the Prince about to fight a duel with a member of a rival clan, and assist him in obtaining an honourable draw. Later, in hyperspace, he talks about the abortive attack on Arunisiir; it seems likely he was set up, and the leak is either from a clan factor on Sink or some old friends on The World. Now read on…

Torpol, 056-1105 to 061-11056

The crew decided to stop longer than usual at Torpol to give the passenger a chance to stretch his legs, since he has been cooped up on board for weeks. Mazun knows the Imperium considers Torpol to be of strategic importance; Rex knows it has good enough defences that pirates generally give it a wide berth. They land at the south polar starport, wanting to keep the ship close at hand in case they need to run for it, and use the ship’s air/raft to travel to the equatorial maritime stilt-city of Esafen, which Dr Matauranga determined has the best university while on approach. It also has a variety of museums, art galleries and whatnot, and somewhat to the team’s surprise Prince Hteleitoirl has an interest in fine art, so everyone except Vila decamps to Esafen.

At Esafen, Dr Matauranga establishes there are several versions of the recent battle at Arunisiir. One version is that a large force of Aslan ihatei launched an unprovoked attack on the people of Arunisiir and were only defeated by the heroics of the local population and a mercenary unit named Planetside Security Services which was conducting training operations on-planet. Another version argues that the ‘sky full of ships’ was actually two Aslan vessels and a shady far trader whose crew took the opportunity to make a quick raid on an outlying settlement. ‘Hundreds of battle-hardened aslan warriors’ were actually dozens of headstrong, idealistic but inexperienced ihatei, and the huge casualty figures seem to be completely invented. (The Prince will later admit that the second version is closer to reality.)

Planetside Security Services has a reputation for being where ihatei are about to land or arrive soon after, usually under the pretext of conducting training for a future contract. They have a strong anti-Aslan stance and will not work alongside Aslan units or any force that contains Aslan personnel. The fact that they just happened to be there when the ihatei arrived seems to suggest there is more to this story than meets the eye. It’s also intriguing that they fought for an aslan government against ihatei.

Fine art alone is not enough for the Prince, and the group takes to the sea in a hired speedboat to hunt sharktopus in the teeth of an equatorial coriolis storm, which provides enough adrenalin, bumps and bruises to satisfy everyone. Dr Matauranga saves the life of the boatman/guide, and the sharktopus hide is borne off in triumph as a trophy.

Vila, meanwhile, is adding hidden compartments to the ship which only he knows about, with the radio on for entertainment. Thus he learns of the arrival of the Star Guard of the Sindalian Empire Reborn, a couple of aging decrepit scoutships and a slightly less moth-eaten far trader, bearing Princess Rao of Drinax and her black-and-silver uniformed entourage to a meeting with the Proctors’ representatives at the highport.

The meeting concludes while the others are on their way back to the ship, and the Proctors’ representatives announce they have been offered a tempting opportunity to join the Sindalian Empire Reborn, and they will now disperse to discuss with their principals.

The Provosts travel to the highport in person, accompanied by Prince Richter Grehai of the anti-aslan Grehai Movement, all now sporting natty black and silver uniforms, who announce that the city-states of Torpol and the Grehai Movement now swear allegiance to the Sindalian Empire Reborn.

Now back at the ship, Mazun hob-nobs with the local journalists while Rex bullies a starport worker into giving him some passcodes. Vila uses these to hack into traffic control, where he learns of plans to commandeer all traffic at the starport and impress the ships and crews into the Star Guard. Our Heroes don’t like that idea, so file a fake flight plan and use the passcodes to send warning messages to all vessels in port (including their own) from a Port Authority account.

Hyperspace and Drinax, 062-1105 to 071-1105

On the basis that the Star Guard is at Torpol, the Macavity jumps to Drinax and refuels at the gas giant, not wanting to risk the starport. Rex and Mazun do a workmanlike job of this, but Vila has to repair some minor damage afterwards.

Hyperspace and Hilfer, 072-1105 to 081-1105

Hilfer gives an opportunity to warn other ships to avoid Torpol and Drinax, send a message to Mazun’s handler on Cordan, have some of those black and silver uniforms made up in case the crew need to pass for Star Guard at any point, and find out that there are some human mercenaries looking for the Prince. They leave quickly and without incident, noting that fashions in the local region of space have suddenly and inexplicably shifted to a pseudo-military look featuring black and silver.

They wonder how Drinax is doing this, and whether psionics are involved.

Hyperspace and Sink, 081-1105 to 090-1105

The starport at Sink is deserted, and the brown-robed and silver-masked monks keep to themselves. The Prince asks the clan factor, whom we shall call Koal, to take him on a tour of the area – a transparent ruse to separate the aslan males from the Prince’s human entourage so they can talk in private. This gives them the chance to sneak into the factor’s house and look for evidence of deliberate or accidental leakage.

Everyone except Rex is intercepted by the household staff, who are not buying the humans’ explanations that they’re “here to help” and “part of the Prince’s security detail, checking it’s safe” – this last is insulting as it implies Koal’s bodyguards are not up to the job.

Rex, meanwhile, has used a bug sniffer provided by Mazun to establish there are no bugs anywhere in the house. He is the only one who has managed to dodge the household staff and is still at large.

To be continued…

GM Notes

For the first time, I dug into the section on Torpol in the Drinaxian Companion I bought years ago, and I liked what I saw, so I adopted it wholesale.

The scenarios I mashed up as a basis for this session are much more complex, but I need something simple enough to hold in my head while I’m running the game, so a lot wound up on the cutting room floor. I find Mongoose Traveller aslan ridiculously large and am not enamoured of their unpronounceable language, so I the ones I use are smaller with names that are easier on the tongue.

I also made a rules change this episode; playing to Hindrances only gives you a Benny if that actually inconveniences you in some way – Rob, one of the players, came up with that for the Deadlands campaign he runs, and I like it enough to adopt it. It also means I don’t have to give people with Cautious a Benny for running away from fights, which I think they do too much as it is.

The group includes three players who were in the Pirates of Drinax campaign; that party included a psion and featured Zhodani meddling, so it’s reasonable for them to suspect psionic foul play.

We’re probably three sessions away from the end of “season one” at this point, and this session foreshadows what will become “season two”, which should run about 20 sessions, taking the campaign to a total of some 30 sessions and PCs to Legendary Rank, and closing sometime in July 2025.

Previously, on the Aslan Route: Rescuing Dr Matauranga from the temple of a nymphomaniac cult on Blue, the Macavity lifts off without an approved flight plan and jumps to Clarke. The crew are now wanted on Blue for traffic violations, contempt of court, and suspected aiding and abetting of known terrorists. Now read on…

Clarke, 044-1105

Emerging from hyperspace, the Macavity is intercepted by an aslan patrol ship of the Ahroay’if clan. Their papers check out, and Macavity lands without incident.

Clarke, 045-1105 to 046-1105

Keeper Takahashi, careful and dull, is the perfect customs agent and checks everything. Twice. Again, everything is in order, so she clears them to offload cargo. She mentions in passing that there is a scavenger encampment outside the starport, where people are excavating Sindalian-era ruins; occasionally they dig up some valuable Old Empire tech, this is still used by several worlds nearby and might make a useful cargo for them.

They thank her, but are suspicious, and a few Credits spent in the starport bars reveal that this behaviour is unlike Takahashi, and further the scav encampment is a rough place and they should go armed. Prince Hteleitoirl declines the invitation to accompany the crew, and heads off to explore the starport by himself. The rest of them pile into the air/raft and head over there.

On site, Mazun starts dickering with the scavs for useful trade goods. Vila and Dr Matauranga notice the scav crowd includes a handful of people who are better-dressed and better-armed than the rest; one of them approaches the good doctor and asks where the aslan is – he is a wanted war criminal and the bounty hunters (for such they are) could make it worth their while to hand him over. No-one needs to get hurt. Matauranga agrees to consider this and takes their commlink number to contact them; clearly the bounty hunters have someone in the starport who saw the Prince disembark and communicated this to them.

Returning to the starport, the crew notice an aslan duelling circle has been marked out on the tarmac with an aslan male on opposite sides. One is Prince Hteleitoirl, the other they don’t know but he has a couple of bounty hunters backing him up and a female aslan attending to him.

Matauranga approaches her and explains he is a doctor, and therefore female as far as aslan are concerned. She explains that her lord’s clan and the Prince’s are enemies, the Prince is spoiling for a fight, and once the honour of her clan has been drawn into question a duel is inevitable. Gaining Hteleitoirl’s consent to act as his second, Matauranga negotiates a duel with dewclaws only to first blood. As luck would have it, the two principals score first blood on each other simultaneously; an honourable draw.

Before the fight, they observed one of the bounty hunters talking to the other aslan, and afterwards – when talking to the female aslan – Matauranga discovers he offered to shoot Hteleitoirl and was soundly rebuffed for his dishonourable suggestion. Citing concerns about the effect of the tainted atmosphere on the Prince’s wounds, they take him back to the ship for treatment, and lift at the earliest opportunity.

Hyperspace, 047-1105 to 054-1105

The crew’s support during the duel encourages the Prince to open up a little, and he explains that he thinks the affair on Arunisiir which cost him his position was a setup. Why was there a mercenary unit on Arunisiir at just the right time, and with just the right troops and equipment, to defeat him? Mazun agrees this sounds suspicious; who might have known his plans? The Prince says that the clan factor on Sink saw him travel through that system and knew where he was going, while some old friends are working security on The World and might have known his plans; that’s why he wants to visit those worlds. The crew offer to help, pointing out that they can do things he cannot, and they are quite good at digging out information.

This leads to a discussion of the possible route, which ends in a tentative plan to travel to Torpol next, then to Drinax, Hilfer, Sink, The World, and finally Tyokh.

Dr Matauranga conducts research into the mercenaries who opposed the Prince, Planetside Security Services, using the ship’s library. PSS have a reputation for being where ihatei are about to land, or arriving soon after, claiming to be conducting training for a future contract. They are strongly against aslan and won’t work alongside them.

GM Notes

This was the episode in which we learned that the whole crew understands Trokh. That’s credible for a crew trading this route.

There were several opportunities for them to get into a fight, all of which they deftly avoided. Rex’s player and myself would quite like the occasional fight, actually, but the rest of them don’t like the idea one bit, and I don’t like railroading them. Realising combat is bound to happen eventually, though, they invested in some body armour.

Mazun’s player suggested we should drop the Wealth rolls for trading and simply say that the ship pays for itself, and if I need them to get stranded or go broke I just use GM fiat. The rest of them seemed OK with that, so we shall – less work for everyone.

“Literal translations of game mechanics from other systems usually just result in cumbersome sub-systems that don’t add one minute of fun to the Savage version.” – Savage Worlds Deluxe

No game last Saturday because of reasons, so no writeup today. Instead, let’s talk about starships.

We’ll need details of ships at some point, and while we’ll use Traveller statistics and deck plans for the most part, combat requires a few SWADE stats. I don’t see much benefit in designing the ships in detail using the SWADE Science Fiction Companion, partly because the different ways the two games handle FTL drives and other items make that quite tricky, and partly because I don’t expect space combat and interstellar trade to play big parts in this campaign.

Ship Statistics

Size is taken from Traveller deck plans. The Macavity, a far trader, is 165’ long according to Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition or Classic Traveller Supplement 7, making her Size 15. Like most starships, her great size gives her 6 Wounds. (If you don’t know the length, use a Mass of 10 x displacement tons, it’s usually within one point – 200 dtons gives 2K tons mass, or Size 14.)

Armour is twice the armour listed in Mongoose Traveller, with a minimum value of +4 (as stated in the SFC). The Macavity has +4 armour, and with an effective Vigour of 5, has a Toughness of 24 (4). SFC Class is derived from Toughness in the usual way.

Weapon stats are typically equivalent to those for SWADE gatling lasers (p. 80) and Sidewinder missiles (p. 79), although some military vessels like the Close Escort have heavy lasers (p. 80). SFC weapon Class is derived from damage in the usual way. The Macavity has two double turrets, each with a gatling laser and a rack for launching missiles.

Handling is as stated in the SFC for vessels of the relevant Size; for Macavity, that’s -2.

Top Speed isn’t relevant in deep space, but since we’re only interested in relative values, we’ll use the ship’s Thrust as defined in Mongoose Traveller for space combat, and the SFC Top Speed for the relevant frame Size if we need in-atmosphere performance. Macavity has Thrust 1 (1G acceleration) and a Top Speed in atmosphere of 16 (1,000 mph). No, I am not going to worry about the effects of atmospheric density on speed, all we need to know is which ship is faster.

“I never thought I would die this way, but I always hoped.” – Futurama

Previously, on The Aslan Route: The inhabitants of Blue are very friendly, but when it’s time to leave, Dr Matauranga is missing. Mazun’s temporary local girlfriend, Yem, says “the Greens” will have had him taken to “the Temple”, but she can lead the rest of the crew to it. Now read on…

Blue, 036-1105

Vila adjusts the air/raft panelling and internal components so that there is an easily accessible, yet concealed, compartment, and into this go Mazun’s 12.7mm pistol and Rex’s laser SMG. That done, Yem leads the crew an hour or so away from the starport to some ruins, where they find a cave-like entrance guarded by two bald, blue-skinned women with Advanced Combat Rifles and costumes which consist of thigh-high kinky boots and a number of strategically-placed leather straps.

“I take it we go in shooting?” Rex asks eagerly.

“There are drawbacks to that,” Mazun points out. “And at this stage, I’m not entirely sure who is being rescued from whom. This is Dr Matauranga we’re talking about.”

Vila lands the air/raft among the ruins so that it’s in cover, and opts to stay with it while Mazun, Rex and Yem approach the guards openly. Yem has explained on the way that getting in is not a problem, but getting out again will depend on what the Greens think of them.

“So, it’s a trap then,” Mazun opines.

Entering the Temple, they find it is very old and has seen better days. Just beyond the entrance is an imposing statue of what appears to be Brian Blessed, with a double-headed eagle on the plinth.

“Is that the deity?” Mazun asks.

“Not really… but it is our Creator,” Yem smiles.

The guards feel it would be rude to leave Vila waiting outside and go to beckon him in. Vila is having none of that, being skittish by nature, so lifts off and circles around the far side of the hill which the Temple is built into.

As Rex and Mazun go deeper underground, Vila loses contact. Yem leads them to a far corner of the Temple, where they find Dr Matauranga, exhausted and snoring , in some kind of hospital bed, hooked up to various medical-looking machines. With him is a green-skinned, middle-aged woman: The High Priestess.

“Yüksek Rahibe,” says Yem, “Here are the offworlders, as you instructed.”

The High Priestess explains that the crew is in the fortunate position of being able to do something for her, and offers them a choice; they can either remain in the Temple indefinitely, acting as a source of genetic material for the cult, or they can carry out a mission for her; take a Yeshil (green priestess) and two Mavi (blue guards) to Collace in the Spinward Marches, where there is something she wants, then take the item and those people to Noricum. After a great deal of haggling, a price is agreed; Mazun notes that there is no specific deadline for completing the task. Dr Matauranga is transferred to an antigrav gurney, Yeshil and Mavi are collected, and everyone sets off back to the surface. The crew is warned not to reveal their mission or the location of the Temple to anyone.

Meanwhile, outside, Vila notices two police air/rafts approaching, their entire surfaces strobing blue and white to indicate they’re on a call. He hides the air/raft under the canopy of a wooded grove, but this doesn’t fool them; one hovers overhead, covering him with some sort of longarm, while the other lands. Two local cops emerge and call to him.

“Is this your air/raft, sir?” Vila explains that it belongs to the Macavity rather than him personally, and as he’s out of contact and doesn’t know the Temple is a secret, also says he has brought his Captain to the Temple to recover the ship’s doctor, who is visiting there to conduct some scientific research.

This causes considerable excitement. One officer continues to question him about the Temple while the other steps away and starts using her commlink to call in things like “We’ve got a 2-82 here, send backup.”

It transpires that the police have been looking for the Temple, which they tell Vila is a nest of dangerous terrorists and he should stay with the officers for his own safety. They will also want to question him later.

The rest of the crew and their would-be new passengers emerge and notice the air/rafts. Mazun tells the local women to go to ground and meet them at the starport, then tries to attract the cops’ attention to draw it away from the women.

This fails, and a firefight erupts between the priestess’ guards and the police. While that’s going on, the crew march away from the sound of the guns and Vila picks them up, then they head back to the starport, passing a group of police air/rafts heading the other way.

During the flight back, Rex mentions he has heard a rumour of a secret Psionics Institute on Blue; perhaps that is why the ladies here are so persuasive.

Traffic control denies clearance for take-off as the police want to question everyone about the Temple as part of their investigation. In consultation with the Prince, Mazun decides the potential delay is unacceptable, and lifts without clearance. The crew do send sworn depositions by commlink to the police. Before the Starport Authority can work through the authorisation process to fire on the Macavity with the starport’s antiship lasers, she’s out of range.

The Macavity and her crew are now wanted on Blue for a minor traffic violation (which is why the police pulled Vila over), contempt of court (not staying to be witnesses in the trial), disobeying starport traffic control, and suspected aiding and abetting of known terrorists. Any cult survivors are also probably not best pleased with them, and that’s before we consider Enemies added at character creation and the assassins they were warned are looking for their passenger.

Hyperspace, 037-1105 to 043-1105

When Dr Matauranga has recovered from his near-death by Snu-Snu , he will explain what he learned and deduced.

The natives of Blue have been genetically engineered from human base stock, apparently as concubines, by the long-vanished Sindalian Empire. A side-effect of this is that they can only produce female offspring and must look elsewhere for males. They have the technology for parthenogenesis but prefer not to use it.

Their ‘Creator’ is the Sindalian Emperor who ordered this done; the Doctor isn’t sure which one, and records from that period are incomplete.

When the topic of the Sindalian Empire was broached, all the people in the Temple were very positive about it and would be happy to have it back again.

When the Temple’s proposed contract is mentioned, Dr Matauranga remembers that in Sindalian times, Collace was an outpost of the Empire, and Noricum – then known as Sindal – was the Empire’s capital. He knows about the outpost because it is rumoured to have been a secret bioweapons research lab, which is why it was so far from the capital and on a lifeless planet.

Next stop: Clarke…

GM Notes

Here I’m shifting posting days, because I like the idea of having Traveller Tuesdays and Solo Saturdays. Although those are just the days when I post, the group sessions are actually on Saturday night and the solo sessions are done in odd moments of spare time over the week. This scenario was worked up from a mixture of Mongoose Traveller random tables, Solodark prompts, and Mythic meaning tables; the Mongoose patron and mission generators work reasonably well, the random encounters don’t inspire me, and the Mythic app on my Android phone is less effort to use than Solodark, so it may make a comeback.

Dr Matauranga’s player couldn’t make the session, but given he had been kidnapped by a nymphomaniac cult, it seemed reasonable that he spent the session asleep. Had he needed to roll for anything, he would have been Exhausted (-2 to Trait rolls).

In line with established tradition in my other campaigns, a xeog’s name is her profession or role in the scenario in Turkish. (I don’t speak it, but I do have Google Translate.) What Dr Matauranga found out explains the origin of the xeogs in this campaign, but the crew studiously ignored the conflict between the government and the Temple; never mind, I was making it up as I went along anyway, and it’ll still be there if they ever go back.

The question of what exactly the cult wants from Collace and why they want it taken to Noricum remains open, we can either follow it up when they’ve dropped off the Prince or forget about it, but that’s not a decision we need to take for some time yet. Here, I borrowed a plotline which emerged in an earlier solo campaign a few years back.

We’ll probably need some ship stats at some point, but that deserves its own post.

He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair—
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!
– T.S. Eliot, Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Jumpspace, 006-1105 to 013-1105

While in jumpspace, Dr Matauranga researches how the crew need to tamper with their cargo’s papers so that it will be rejected by Customs without them being blamed. Based on this, Vila writes code to hack the relevant tags while Mazun writes the test cases. The new code passes testing, they implement it, and cross their fingers.

When they’re not doing that, they engage their passenger in conversation, getting to know him a little better and hopefully finding out what they’ve got themselves into. Mazun discovers Prince Hteleitoirl is a junior son, if perhaps his father’s favourite, expected to make his own fortune rather than inheriting. He took the usual route, heading off to find his own land with a band of friends. He gets that far and lapses into brooding; Mazun doesn’t push it.

Vila, who is shaping up as the team’s aslan specialist, remembers that although not a major player in Hierate politics, the Prince’s clan (Iuwoi) has its own small spaceport on Tyokh and some offworld assets, specifically on Sink and The World.

Iilgan, 014-1105 to 016-1105

After a week cooped up aboard ship, the crew wants to scatter and get some fresh air, although they persuade the Prince to stay on board; by now his enemies probably know he has left Fist, and there are not many places he could have gone.

Vila heads for the starport bar, and considers robbing one of the other patrons but notices he has a group of half a dozen friends with him and decides against it. Dr Matauranga discovers Poetachus has come to the starport to collect his cargo personally, and learns of the cut-throat competition for the coveted prizes at the annual vegetable show.

Captain Ashran is disappointed to find that the Customs agents are counting the minutes until they can clock off for the day and go home to watch a major sporting event, and has to make himself irritating enough that they decide to check his cargo’s paperwork in detail. They find the error the crew planted earlier, and refuse the cargo entry. This avoids the bacteria being released onworld to poison local crops, but means the crew won’t get paid and will have to carry the cargo away with them.

A lengthy three-way argument ensues between the Macavity‘s crew, the Customs agents, and Poetachus. At length, Mazun comes up with the idea of putting the cargo in a bonded warehouse; that way the agents can go watch their game, the Macavity gets paid, and Poetachus’ bacteria are at least close at hand and ready to go as soon as he can sort out the paperwork. The agents aren’t convinced they can do that, but Matauranga has been looking at the customs regulations and demonstrates that not only can they, but they really should.

The Macavity leaves before anything else goes wrong.

Jumpspace, Exocet, and Jumpspace Again: 017-1105 to 033-1105

Rex knows where to look for pirates, and as the ship exits jumpspace in the Exocet system, he finds one lurking outside the 100 diameter limit. It’s clearly waiting for something, but fortunately the Macavity isn’t it.

Their visit is otherwise uneventful. Dropping off a cargo of food and tools for the fungus farmers on Exocet, they decide that the largely-empty class A starport must have been set up by GeDeCo as a tax dodge. They pick up a cargo of exotic fungus for Blue, and before they head back out Vila picks up a couple of stun batons and the aslan passenger sates his desire to be out of the ship for a while.

Meanwhile, Rex steals a length of steel pipe and some duct tape from the engine room and fashions himself a sturdy club. The nails through the end are a mere courtesy detail.

Blue, 034-1105 to 035-1105

The crew find that the people of Blue are bald, blue-skinned female humanoids with a debauched and hedonistic streak, leading to all the human males aboard receiving multiple offers of dates, which they accept with relish. Even Rex is propositioned at one point, despite being a vargr; but the aslan Prince stays concealed on board.

When Mazun peels off his current, if temporary, girlfriend and goes to round up the crew, he finds Dr Mataraunga is missing. There is no sign of a struggle in his quarters. Asking around, he learns from his local paramour that Mataraunga has been “taken to the Temple” and when he asks for directions, she offers to take him there herself.

“Great,” says Mazun. “Just need to get a few things from the ship first…”

To be continued…

GM Notes

I had hoped I could hold the players to one star system per week, but as I felt a bit under the weather I hadn’t prepared enough to hold them on Iilgan, and as usual in a Savage Worlds game the PCs burn through plot like a knife through butter; to keep things moving I borrowed the Xeogs from 5150 and dropped them on Blue for the PCs to interact with.

Matauranga’s player spent a Benny for narrative control to set up the Customs agents needing to leave quickly to catch the game.

The players themselves don’t seem that worried about how trade works, but a question by Thomas B sent me off to research how tramp freighters operate. Mostly on single-voyage charters, it seems. However, his suggestion that the cargo should use Free On Board rules made sense and did actually factor into the argument with customs. Mongoose Traveller says cargo is paid for on delivery, and that sounds like FOB Freight Collect to me, so that’s how we played it.

As in every previous SWADE campaign, some of the PCs are ridiculously lucky at specific types of roll; I don’t know why this happens, but it does. Vila always rolls high on Common Knowledge when he is trying to remember something about aslan, and Dr Matauranga is rolling a ridiculous number of Raises on his Wealth die when he supports the Captain’s trading roll. We decided he has ill-gotten gains stashed throughout this part of the sector.

I’m also taking the opportunity to try out various parts of the Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition rules; periodically, I ask myself why I bother emulating Traveller in SWADE when I could just play Traveller; my usual answer is that while SWADE is best suited for pulpy action adventures, Traveller works best for gritty slice of life stories, so MgT is slower and takes more dice rolls to get to the same result; which you want depends on how much time you have, and whether you’re focused on the journey or the destination.

This time, I tried out encounters; creating Poetachus and Lord Selwyn using the Ally/Rival and Patron tables worked well, but the idea of rolling a random encounter at least every six hours doesn’t suit me, so I fell back on a 1/3 chance every day. There’s minimal support for animal encounters, but I very rarely use those anyway, so I can live with that; the jury’s still out on space encounters, they don’t happen very often. One thing I couldn’t find anywhere in the rules was a table for reaction rolls; I rely quite heavily on those, so that would mean either changing how I GM the game or importing a table from elsewhere, which is easy enough.

My impression so far is that while Classic Traveller relied heavily on random tables to generate an emergent setting, the Mongoose Traveller GM is intended to plot out a story in advance, and only use the random tables in emergencies. I’m not sure how well this is going to work for me; it sounds like a lot of effort, which is what I’m trying to avoid. I should probably give it more than one session before forming an opinion.